Tacoma, Wash, April 1951April 1951

Insufficient Data

Summary

On April 12, 1951, near Point Defiance in Tacoma, Washington, military personnel and a civilian reported a strange object at about 1940 (7:40 p.m.). Several witnesses, including airmen and a civilian instructor, saw the object northwest of Point Defiance. The weather had unlimited ceiling and visibility.

Witnesses could not make out the shape, size, or color in the dark, but the speed seemed tremendous. The object flew from southwest to northeast while descending, then turned northwest and flew straight and level for about 30 seconds with its lights slowly dimming. It then shot straight up and disappeared. It gave off periodic bursts of light and trailed a cigar-shaped glow about 200 to 300 feet long and silver in color. There was no sound.

The object was in view for about two and a half to three minutes. The witnesses had no way to judge speed or altitude in the dark. The Air Force recorded the case in Project 10073, its official file for unidentified flying object reports. The conclusion was a possible aircraft.

Reported location

Tacoma, Wash, April 1951

Date of incident

April 1951

State / country

? / XX

Page count

4 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 8

‘ PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD 1. DATE ( 2. LOCATION ]12. CONCLUSIONS 2 Y 0 Was Balloon 1 Apr 51 Tacoma, Wash 8] Probably Balloon 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION = |2 Pesditly Batioen ET RR RS RE RS X% Ground-Visual O Ground-Rador g Probably Aircraft GMT 13/ 03402 O Air Visuol O Air-Intercept Radar Possibly Aircraft S. PHOTOS . 0 Was Astronomicol O Yes OD Probably Astronomical & No Military O Possibly Astronomical 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE BD EE imi -. hog Dota for Eveluation nknown 24 - 3 min 1 SW to NE to NW 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS , Speed was tremendous. Descending, level and | Possible aircraft. straight up. | ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52) F .